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3rd out of 134 books
—
207 voters
The Dickens With Love
by
Josh Lanyon (Goodreads Author)
A quirky holiday romance about Faith, Hope, and…er…glow-in-the-dark condoms!
Three years ago, a scandal cost antiquarian “book hunter” James Winter everything that mattered to him: his job, his lover and his self-respect. But now the rich and unscrupulous Mr. Stephanopoulos has a proposition. A previously unpublished Christmas book by Charles Dickens has turned up in the ha...more
Three years ago, a scandal cost antiquarian “book hunter” James Winter everything that mattered to him: his job, his lover and his self-respect. But now the rich and unscrupulous Mr. Stephanopoulos has a proposition. A previously unpublished Christmas book by Charles Dickens has turned up in the ha...more
Kindle Edition, 111 pages
Published
December 1st 2009
by Samhain
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This week's Guest Dear Abby is mark monday, a public policy director and "confirmed bachelor" from San Francisco.
Mr. monday will be answering your questions about the yuletide offering from Josh Lanyon entitled The Dickens with Love.
_________________________
Dear Abby,
You were assigned to read this and report on your thoughts quite a while ago. Why are you always lagging behind? Your review is overdue.
Disappointed,
RBRS
*****
Dear RBRS,
my apologies. well, here's the review:
i was surprised at how mu...more
Mr. monday will be answering your questions about the yuletide offering from Josh Lanyon entitled The Dickens with Love.
_________________________
Dear Abby,
You were assigned to read this and report on your thoughts quite a while ago. Why are you always lagging behind? Your review is overdue.
Disappointed,
RBRS
*****
Dear RBRS,
my apologies. well, here's the review:
i was surprised at how mu...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
20 likes · like · see review
RBRS #...lost track
Blessedly short. Surprisingly prosaic plot with a mysterious past, dastardly villain, a misunderstanding, and two hot people hooking up. Instead of a sassy gay friend, there is a dumpy hetero friend. There was a lot stuffed into this small story. Twss, with chocolate creme brulee body cream.
The secksy scenes used some odd metaphors. They were also blessedly brief. TMI, but I was kind of relieved that none of them "worked" for me. Exit only!
This is a text in wish fulfillment an...more
Blessedly short. Surprisingly prosaic plot with a mysterious past, dastardly villain, a misunderstanding, and two hot people hooking up. Instead of a sassy gay friend, there is a dumpy hetero friend. There was a lot stuffed into this small story. Twss, with chocolate creme brulee body cream.
The secksy scenes used some odd metaphors. They were also blessedly brief. TMI, but I was kind of relieved that none of them "worked" for me. Exit only!
This is a text in wish fulfillment an...more
16 likes · like · see review
make the yuletide gay...
aww, i thought this was such a sweet story.
wildly implausible on so many levels, but it's christmas! forget the unlikelihood of troo love occurring in three days, and the consequences of decisions requiring an unhealthy and absolute faith in the goodness of mankind and the most bizarre choice for love-over-duty this side of bastard out of carolina.
and forget...an ocelot??
nah, don't forget the ocelot. this is l.a., after all.
all joking aside, this book was not nearly as ba...more
48 likes · like · see review
Dec 08, 2011
Ceridwen
added it
This isn't a spoiler, but profanity-laced complaining. (view spoiler)
Anyway. I've never read any m/m romance before. I've read gay fiction, and romance, but not that exact peanut butter in that exact chocolate. Here, the problems of a gay couple overcoming their obstacles and ending in an HEA are pretty...more
Anyway. I've never read any m/m romance before. I've read gay fiction, and romance, but not that exact peanut butter in that exact chocolate. Here, the problems of a gay couple overcoming their obstacles and ending in an HEA are pretty...more
29 likes · like · see review
WARNING RANT INCOMING:
Once again welcome to MLE's negative review of the book everyone else loved. I'm your host MLE.
Let's begin shall we.
I will start with the plot. When I was first reading the synopsis the plot sounded intriguing, and I loved the idea of the disgraced book hunter, and the lost Dickens story, but for some reason it ended up not working for me. I think that sex was introduced too early on, and was a distraction from what I liked about the idea of the book rather than something t...more
Once again welcome to MLE's negative review of the book everyone else loved. I'm your host MLE.
Let's begin shall we.
I will start with the plot. When I was first reading the synopsis the plot sounded intriguing, and I loved the idea of the disgraced book hunter, and the lost Dickens story, but for some reason it ended up not working for me. I think that sex was introduced too early on, and was a distraction from what I liked about the idea of the book rather than something t...more
11 likes · like · see review
Ihana! That's "lovely" and "sweet" in Finnish. There really are no other words that better describe this story: Lovely. Sweet. Ihana.
Josh Lanyon simply makes me believe. Whether it is a hostile ocelot in a weird place or a unexpected love story unlikely to happen. He makes it up, he writes it down - and I want to believe it. When it's Lanyon's work it's guaranteed to be charming, clever, extremely well written and simply compelling. This time it is a story with two guys who turned out to be the...more
Josh Lanyon simply makes me believe. Whether it is a hostile ocelot in a weird place or a unexpected love story unlikely to happen. He makes it up, he writes it down - and I want to believe it. When it's Lanyon's work it's guaranteed to be charming, clever, extremely well written and simply compelling. This time it is a story with two guys who turned out to be the...more
5 likes · like · see review
This holiday novella is a total and complete delight, a tender romance with also a tense little mystery underneath. Lanyon here tells the story of James, an antique book hunter who is on a mission to gauge the validity of a newly discovered novel by Charles Dickens. The owner of the book is a professor from England, strikingly handsome but unfortunately cold and aloof, and he seems to take a fast dislike to James. All seems lost on this mission, and James is settling into the gloomy thoughts of...more
The problem I have with novellas, particularly holiday romance novellas, is that as soon as I have started to settle in for the ride, they tell me happily ever after, the end. Nonetheless, I did enjoy this one.
Perhaps it was the 1st person POV of James Winter, or perhaps it was because one cannot help but sympathize with the unfortunates, but whatever the case is, I found him a sympathetic character. Although he stated that he probably deserved the scorn of his former colleagues because of his...more
Perhaps it was the 1st person POV of James Winter, or perhaps it was because one cannot help but sympathize with the unfortunates, but whatever the case is, I found him a sympathetic character. Although he stated that he probably deserved the scorn of his former colleagues because of his...more
Maybe a little unbelievable, but very cute
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.
Rating: 9/10
PROS:
- The more I read, the more I liked the tone of the narration. James is honest and intelligent, and there’s something rather charming about his resigned attitude toward life. Lanyon also captures the obsession of a scholar very well: when James starts looking at an antique book or manuscript, he completely loses touch with the outside world.
- Sedgwick intrigued me al...more
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.
Rating: 9/10
PROS:
- The more I read, the more I liked the tone of the narration. James is honest and intelligent, and there’s something rather charming about his resigned attitude toward life. Lanyon also captures the obsession of a scholar very well: when James starts looking at an antique book or manuscript, he completely loses touch with the outside world.
- Sedgwick intrigued me al...more
There are dicks in this books. And fucking. A Christmas miracle! Dicks! Fuck! Not a throbbing manhood in sight, no disturbing portrayals of sex as an out-of-body mystical experience, and a blessed absence of euphemisms. Why aren't more sex scenes written in everyday language instead of vulvas-flowering-like-tropical-orchids-purple-prose? I mean, it still wasn't interesting, but at least I didn't laugh myself sick and feel embarrassed for the author. Bonus points for including condoms and a sensi...more
25 likes · like · see review
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Okay, I’m just stupid, but I had no idea this had anything to do with gay erotica. None. Zip. I didn’t know the author and only downloaded the story because the premise–the discovery of a previously unknown Christmas book by Dickens–interested me. Having always loved Dickens (and been SO disappointed when I got through all his novels and realized there wouldn’t be any more), I’ve toyed off and on with doing something either set in or involving Victorian England for years. So I came to this hones...more
4.5-5
This is a brilliant story! Funny, intelligent, light-hearted, quirky, with an original plot and great characters. However, I may be a bit biased because I love books and I definitely love books about people who love books.
It was more than that, though. I loved both, James and Sedgwick (by the way, what an awesome name is that?), I really liked them together, their back stories, their characters. The writing style was perfect for the story, quite sophisticated, but it just seemed to fit in t...more
This is a brilliant story! Funny, intelligent, light-hearted, quirky, with an original plot and great characters. However, I may be a bit biased because I love books and I definitely love books about people who love books.
It was more than that, though. I loved both, James and Sedgwick (by the way, what an awesome name is that?), I really liked them together, their back stories, their characters. The writing style was perfect for the story, quite sophisticated, but it just seemed to fit in t...more
This is an utterly delightful Christmas story about lonely, disgraced book hunter James Winter and the bit of magic he receives at Christmas time. Sounds a little sentimental? Well, this story is just a little sentimental - it's also serious, funny, delightfully absurd, sexy and very romantic.
The story starts off with our first-person narrator James Winter, and we join him at rock bottom in his life. Disgraced in a scandal not of his making 3 years ago, he's bitter, lonely, discouraged and pret...more
The story starts off with our first-person narrator James Winter, and we join him at rock bottom in his life. Disgraced in a scandal not of his making 3 years ago, he's bitter, lonely, discouraged and pret...more
Dickens was once a word from which I cringed. It's probably a crime in some countries to force people to read his work too young, before any understanding of the history and social advocacy could be properly understood. Couple that with the memories of a too-smug, arrogant acquaintance of my youth who lived and breathed Dickens and acted as if no one, but NO ONE could possibly understand them like he could.
Personal issues aside, I re-discovered Dickens later in life and found him not half bad....more
Personal issues aside, I re-discovered Dickens later in life and found him not half bad....more
This festive novella is a bit of a roller coaster in terms of the relationship of the heroes, but ends on a lovely sweet note designed to warm the hearts of even the most determined Scrooge. James is a disgraced antiquarian book dealer. A link to a dodgy book dealer in the past has led to him becoming a pariah of the book hunting world so he's forced to work for unpleasant private collectors like Mr Stephanopoulos who has hired him to assess a new, previously unheard of Christmas Story by Charle...more
3 likes · like · see review
I think I did my part to dilute the importance found in underlining meaningful passages on this kindle edition.
For example, click on "Popular Highlights" for this book on kindle and you will find:
"Bravery isn't the absence of fear, it's how you deal with being afraid."
Well. That's very nice. I'm glad so many other people found this line really meaningful to them. But I can get that kind of encouragement from watching a documentary on Patton or something. It's hardly the kind of life lesson...more
For example, click on "Popular Highlights" for this book on kindle and you will find:
"Bravery isn't the absence of fear, it's how you deal with being afraid."
Well. That's very nice. I'm glad so many other people found this line really meaningful to them. But I can get that kind of encouragement from watching a documentary on Patton or something. It's hardly the kind of life lesson...more
14 likes · like · see review
Before you start this book, make sure you have vodka, creme de cocoa and goldschlager on hand – just trust me on that. You know Smexy likes her cocktails, and things that sparkle – put those together and you have a Stardust, and it sounds like it is full of sparkly deliciousness. There is much more to this lovely book than booze though, so let’s get to it.
James Winter is a book appraiser that has fallen on hard times. Three years ago he had the life many envied, a successful antique book hunting...more
James Winter is a book appraiser that has fallen on hard times. Three years ago he had the life many envied, a successful antique book hunting...more
Lovely! I finished this book with a lonely tear running down my face, perfect!
James, the narrator, is a hardened man. Of all the things he had in his life, only the love for books has remained. When he meets Sedge, James is a paycheck away from the street. To survive he needs to buy the book for his sleazy client, but first his pride and then his attraction for Sedge get in the way. It's James himself that recognizes that he is not probably a model of integrity, but he acts with his own code of...more
James, the narrator, is a hardened man. Of all the things he had in his life, only the love for books has remained. When he meets Sedge, James is a paycheck away from the street. To survive he needs to buy the book for his sleazy client, but first his pride and then his attraction for Sedge get in the way. It's James himself that recognizes that he is not probably a model of integrity, but he acts with his own code of...more
A cute - well, cute for Josh - story about two men who come together over an unpublished Dickens Christmas story.
James is a man who has come down in the world, after a major upheaval in his life 3 years earlier. He is a lonely man, partly due to his changed circumstance, and partly due to misplaced pride. Sedgwick, a Brit on a working holiday in L.A., is a man chasing a dream, after an incident that makes him re-evaluate his life.
James is an interesting character, in that while I felt sorry for...more
James is a man who has come down in the world, after a major upheaval in his life 3 years earlier. He is a lonely man, partly due to his changed circumstance, and partly due to misplaced pride. Sedgwick, a Brit on a working holiday in L.A., is a man chasing a dream, after an incident that makes him re-evaluate his life.
James is an interesting character, in that while I felt sorry for...more
I didn't feel dirty reading this book. I felt dirty reading its reviews. This book wasn't written for me, nor for any of the other women who read it. It's very much a book written within a community, for its community, and I felt like a voyeur the whole time.
It's not like I'm a member of the nineteenth century English gentry of Austen's parlors nor will I be found discussing the latest happenings in the Dreyfus affair and worrying if I've picked the right hat in Proust's Parisian salons. Some c...more
It's not like I'm a member of the nineteenth century English gentry of Austen's parlors nor will I be found discussing the latest happenings in the Dreyfus affair and worrying if I've picked the right hat in Proust's Parisian salons. Some c...more
22 likes · like · see review
The Dickens With Love was first brought to my attention by the illustrious karen whose review of it is far, far funnier than mine. Seriously. Her review is here. Go read it.
I laughed so hard when reading this book & was grinning when I finished it. It might be described as so bad it's awful. I mean, who has a contemporary character named Sedgewick Crisparkle? (I say this as a bearer of a bizarre name of my own.) There are also flashing, holiday flavored condoms, glittery cocktails, and a ran...more
I laughed so hard when reading this book & was grinning when I finished it. It might be described as so bad it's awful. I mean, who has a contemporary character named Sedgewick Crisparkle? (I say this as a bearer of a bizarre name of my own.) There are also flashing, holiday flavored condoms, glittery cocktails, and a ran...more
3 likes · like · see review
As another reviewer pointed out, the problem with novellas is just when you get into it, BAM it's over.
Other than the length (hahaha oh my inner 12-year-old boy had to snicker at that, sorry), I really enjoyed this. Told in the first person, this little gem of a story had everything I like in a romance -- lots of angst (without sinking to a bunch of emo melodrama), a bad (and mostly undeserved) reputation, some weirdness thrown in for flavor (and yes, I had to Google "ocelot"), the initial disli...more
Other than the length (hahaha oh my inner 12-year-old boy had to snicker at that, sorry), I really enjoyed this. Told in the first person, this little gem of a story had everything I like in a romance -- lots of angst (without sinking to a bunch of emo melodrama), a bad (and mostly undeserved) reputation, some weirdness thrown in for flavor (and yes, I had to Google "ocelot"), the initial disli...more
I liked the book but somehow felt that I was thrown midway into a story. That there was more to know about the characters, especially James. The subtle reminiscing and bits thrown by side characters was a nice way to create the background image of James' fall from grace. I would have liked to know more about Sedge (God, his family had strange names) and what happened with the two of them after the obvious Happy-Ending. What I found a bit annoying was all the carols and references to songs and mo...more
I don't normally read Christmas books because they don't appeal and to me it seems like a band that suddenly releases a Christmas album and you know it's just for the money. Not that I am saying that is what was being done here, not at all, but that is my reasoning for avoiding most Christmas stories.
Having said that, I loved this book! I was immediately, completely drawn into James' world. The story is so well balanced the humor mixed with the sadness and stress of the season, just when it is n...more
Having said that, I loved this book! I was immediately, completely drawn into James' world. The story is so well balanced the humor mixed with the sadness and stress of the season, just when it is n...more
Well I have actually read my first gay male novel. I have read many stories with lesbian characters, but never men. I did this for a challenge I am in and I have to say it wasn't that bad ;-).
I think the redeeming factor of this novella was in its story. A book dealer hears of a previously unpublishe, unknown Christmas tale by Charles Dickens and sends a scout to try to obtain it before it goes to auction. The man sent to get the tomb finds love with the seller and romance ensues.
As I don't no...more
I think the redeeming factor of this novella was in its story. A book dealer hears of a previously unpublishe, unknown Christmas tale by Charles Dickens and sends a scout to try to obtain it before it goes to auction. The man sent to get the tomb finds love with the seller and romance ensues.
As I don't no...more
Let me start off by saying that I love Josh Lanyon's books and this one is no exception. I was expecting a great read -- what I wasn't expecting was such a wonderful, sweet, and touching Christmas story. I have never been a big fan of Christmas-specific stories but I have a few on my list that I enjoy reading each year. "The Dickens with Love" has just made it onto my list -- I expect I'll have a few re-reads this season and be reading it annually for many years to come.
What I appreciate most a...more
What I appreciate most a...more
1 like · like · see review
This was one of the best books I read recently, so simple and yet so wonderfully done I had to read it twice in one go within twenty - four hours. There were so many things I immensely enjoyed. The story is written in a kind, loving tone of voice that fits its theme perfectly well. The author plays with style and language, effectively creating a truely Dickensian feeling, even with using a modern setting and modern language. (By example almost every person's name in the story could have been the...more
This was a reread of the first Josh Lanyon story I ever read; so it holds a special place in my heart. It's still a great holiday story even though both of the MCs are assholes. Even assholes deserve a little love sometimes....more
6 likes · like · see review
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q&A with Josh...: The Dickens With Love | 88 | 91 | Jul 24, 2012 11:06am |
A distinct voice in gay fiction, multi-award-winning author JOSH LANYON has been writing gay mystery, adventure and romance for over a decade. In addition to numerous short stories, novellas, and novels, Josh is the author of the critically acclaimed Adrien English series, including The Hell You Say, winner of the 2006 USABookNews awards for GLBT Fiction. Josh is an Eppie Award winner and a three-...more
More about Josh Lanyon...
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“The problem with a life spent reading is you know too much.”
—
36 people liked it
“And yet, even as I made these plans, there was a small dismayed corner of my heart. Like those stupid cartoons when you're a kid: little red devil on one shoulder and the little angel in his nightie on the other. My good angel was hiding his eyes.”
—
5 people liked it
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Oct 19, 2012 06:54am
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